Rory quickly scanned the diner before following her mother inside.
"Do we have to come here all the time?" she muttered.
"Excuse me?" taken aback, Lorelai turned to face her daughter. "Did I hear you correctly? Do my ears deceive me? You know how much coffee our bodies require! You want to deny them that?"
"No… it's just that we're here all the time, and there are certain people who are also here all the time that I would rather not have to see… all the time." explained Rory, delicately.
"Luke would be very offended to hear you say that about him." Lorelai said, feeling like winding Rory up, as Luke approached them.
"Why am I offended?" he asked, ushering them to a table.
"Rory says that you're here all the time and she doesn't want to see you anymore."
"No! That's not what I meant!"
"Why don't you want to see me?" demanded Luke.
"Well that's what you said, isn't it?" remarked Lorelai at the same time.
"No! I said…"
Luke put his hands on his hips. "You know that I own this place, right? That's why it's called Luke's, and I live just upstairs which is also why you may see me here all the time?"
"It's not actually just a big coincidence as some people would have you believe." added Lorelai unhelpfully.
"No!" Rory protested. "It's not you! I love seeing you, Luke. I look forward to it…you are the highlight of my day, and …you know, that kind of thing…"
"But you said that you didn't want to see him." Lorelai reminded her, suppressing a grin.
"That's not who I was talking about." Rory glared at her mother pointedly.
Lorelai tapped her chin, playing dumb. "Then who…?"
"Can we just drop it?"
"Ohh!" Luke caught on. "Don't worry, Jess isn't here right now anyway. He and Allie are out getting… actually I have no idea what they're doing, but the point is, he's not here."
"So you two still aren't talking?" Luke carried on. "Coz I don't know what you were fighting about, but it's been a couple of weeks…"
"We're not… we weren't fighting. We just had a misunderstanding."
Luke looked at her blankly. "Ok. So, I'll get you guys some food."
As soon as he had turned away, Rory glared at her mum. "I can't believe how you just turned on me like that! On your own daughter! It was disgusting."
Lorelai shrugged. "Sorry honey, but as your creator, it is my divine right to pull your strings as I see fit."
"But you're meant to always be on my side, for better or worse till death do us part!" insisted Rory.
"Ohh… see that must be what the problem was, I never realized those vows were about kids… I was under the impression that they were for marriage… sorry darl, my mistake."
"Wow. I can't believe that you've survived here for so long! This place is tiny!"
"Well, it gets kinda… homely after a while."
Allie raised her eyebrows disbelievingly. "Really Jess. You have a soft spot for this… village? Who would have thought…"
It was Monday afternoon, and the pair were wandering around Stars Hollow for lack of better things to do.
"I'm just used to it, that's all." He produced a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, and lit one, offering the packet to Allie.
"You're still keeping up that disgusting habit?"
He shrugged. "Yep. You?"
"Yep. Haven't got round to giving up yet." She took a cigarette and lit it while Jess grinned and shook his head.
They sat down on a bench, and Jess pulled out a paper bag of gummy snakes.
Allie chewed on one thoughtfully in between puffs. "So you ever gonna come back home?"
"Depends. I'll have to wait and see how things turn out."
Allie followed her brother's gaze to where Rory and Dean were walking together coming towards their bench. Rory had caught sight of Jess and Allie too late to change her path, and began looking increasingly nervous and annoyed as she approached. She grabbed Dean's hand pointedly as they stopped in front of them.
"Hello." she said as civilly as she could manage.
Jess was leaning back casually, enjoying Rory's discomfort and Dean's angry glare.
"Afternoon. Allie, you remember Rory from the diner?"
"Vaguely." Allie shrugged and gave a halfhearted smile. She wasn't trying to be rude, but she was well aware of the tension in the air, and didn't understand what it was about.
"And this is her… boyfriend, Dean." continued Jess.
Rory cleared her throat. "Um, this is Jess's sister."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Great, just what this town needs, another teenage delinquent." he muttered, ignoring Rory elbowing him sharply in the side.
"It's lovely to meet you too, Dean." said Allie loudly. "What a charming boyfriend you must be."
"Snake?" Jess held up the paper bag to Rory. "They're gummy."
"None for me."
"What about you, Dean? Please, help yourself. Or how about a cigarette?"
Dean glared as Jess took a long drag.
"Come on, Rory. Lets go."
"Yep." They left, and Rory tried to walk quickly, aware of their eyes on her back.
"So what was that all about?" questioned Allie as soon as they were out of earshot.
Jess just shrugged. "Nothing. He's just a jerk."
"And…?" pressed Allie. "You've so obviously got it bad for that girl."
"What? I have not!"
"It's ok, I won't tell that you have a crush."
"I haven't!" Jess insisted, but sighed as his sister stared at him, eyebrows raised, waiting for him to come out with the whole story. "Ok. Maybe I kinda like her a little bit…" he glanced at Allie who was still waiting for him to spill. "Ok! Since the beginning, I've kinda wound Dean up… a little… so he doesn't like me, and he gets mad if Rory spends any time with me, but she's really great, you know? And… and a couple of weeks ago, we were at this… wedding, and we… she kissed me… and that's all. Now she's like all mad and weirded out by it, but she's still with Dean. What am I meant to do?" he looked at Allie helplessly.
Allie stubbed out her cigarette. "No wonder she's mad at you."
"What? Why?"
"She made the first move?"
"What?"
"Jess. That's pathetic. Really. I mean, you like this girl, who has a boyfriend, and you make it obvious to her that you like her, but don't do anything, and then she has to kiss you first? She has every right to be mad."
Jess sat up, confused. "What!" he repeated. "How can she be mad? I never made a move because of Dean!"
Allie shook her head exasperated. "You have no idea, do you Jess? She's the one with the boyfriend, and she kissed you, so technically, she's in the wrong. What was supposed to happen was that you were meant to kiss her, so she could kiss back and stuff, and then push you away and protest, and then go back to her boyfriend, and be all mad at you, and be like 'oh the cheek of that Jess…' but secretly like it. You know, that kind of thing. But you screwed it all up by making her do it, and now she can't blame you, only herself, and because she had to make the move, now she isn't so sure that you even wanted to kiss her in the first place. So no wonder she's mad at you."
Jess looked even more bewildered. "And I'm supposed to be able to figure all of this out?"
Allie shook her head patiently. "Of course, Jess. It's so obvious."
That evening, Rory was in the video store, trying to pick something for her and Lorelai to watch. She was reading the back of a video case, when she suddenly became aware of someone standing near her.
She looked up and groaned. "What are you doing here?"
Jess faked surprise at seeing her. "Rory! Nice to see you. Well I was actually looking to buy a cat, but they don't seem to sell any in here… I might check out the back."
Rory felt like she had seen Jess about a hundred times in the past couple of days, and was sick of it because every time it made her jump and get butterflies, and then she'd be annoyed for getting the butterflies, and annoyed at him for acting so nonchalant around her. She narrowed her eyes. "Ha ha. You know, could you just… not be here all the time?"
"What, like here? The video store? This is the first time I've been in here for about a month, I swear!"
"No, I mean, could you not be where I am all the time."
"Ohh…" Jess raised his eyebrows, looking faintly amused. "You think I'm following you or something?
"No… but-"
"You think that this is planned? Me trying to be in your face all the time? It hasn't occurred to you that the miniscule size of the town may have something to do with the fact that we happen to see each other everywhere? And also the fact that you spend a lot of your time in the diner - where I work and live?"
Rory blushed, wishing she had never said anything. Her request didn't sound as reasonable as she had originally thought it would.
"Hay, what about this one?" Allie suddenly appeared, brandishing a video, and somewhat breaking the tension. "Oh, hi Rory! How's -"
"Yep, that one's great, lets go." Jess pushed past Allie and headed to the counter. Allie chewed on her lip and gave Rory a quick smile before following her brother.
"The popcorn's nearly ready! What'd you pick?" called Lorelai as she heard her daughter coming back into the house. When there was no answer, she ventured out into the living room, where Rory was kicking off her shoes and looking stormy.
"Dare I ask again… what'd you pick?"
"What? Oh I don't know." Rory gestured absentmindedly towards the video she'd tossed onto the couch.
"Ok. What's up?"
Rory took a breath. "Ohh, he's just so infuriating! He's always… there, and always so annoying…-"
"I assume we're talking about either Dean or Jess." interrupted Lorelai.
"Jess, of course!"
Lorelai held up her hands in defense. "Of course, of course. Silly me to assume that when you say 'he' you're not talking about your boyfriend…"
"Mom!"
"Sorry honey. Carry on venting." Lorelai took a seat on the edge of the couch.
Rory ran a hand through her hair. "I don't know, he just makes me so mad, I'm just sick of him!"
"Well surely he can't be bothering you too much at the moment, coz he's been spending heaps of time with Allie."
"Allie! Ohh don't get me started on her!"
Lorelai was genuinely surprised. "What's wrong with her? I think she's very nice, not nearly as pessimistic and cynical as her male relatives, which I find very surprising because I really thought that in their case those were hereditary family traits."
"She's just always there as well! Just hanging around… hanging with Jess…"
"But Jess and Allie-" Lorelai didn't get to finish.
"Exactely! Jess and Allie this, Jess and Allie that… what are they Siamese twins? Joined at the hip?" Rory stopped pacing, and looked at her mother who was trying not to laugh.
"What? Are you laughing? This is serious!"
"Oh my god, I can't believe it!" giggled Lorelai.
"What?" demanded Rory, frowning.
"You are so totally jealous!"
"Jealous? Of what?"
"Of Allie of course! I should've seen it before."
"That's insane! Why would I be jealous of Allie! She's too annoying."
"Annoying because she's hanging out with Jess - quite rightly, may I add as they are brother and sister - and he's been spending so much time with her that he hasn't had time to follow you around and make Dean jealous!" Lorelai was quite pleased with herself that she'd figured it all out. Rory, however, was not at all pleased at being called jealous, and said so.
"Why would I care what Jess does? I'm with Dean." Rory stated, just as much to remind herself as to remind her mother.
Lorelai smiled sympathetically. "Sweetie, it's ok… well, it'd be a lot more ok if it wasn't Jess that was involved… Come on, lets forget about it for now and watch this movie."
Rory nodded resignedly, adding "I'm not jealous though." And tried to suppress the hollow shock that she felt with the realization that jealous was exactly what she was.